After the last Metaday [[User:Wilder|Pavol]], one of our friends from Bratislava offered to give a presentation about his research into SMS-ticket sytems that are in use for public transport in many big cities like Vienna.

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=== Abstract ===

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<cite>The primary aim of this presentation is to show a serious inherent vulnerability in the public transport SMS tickets system widely used in many big cities. Firstly, prerequisites for a successful hack are described. Then a proposed SMS ticket hacking network architecture is outlined, including a SMS ticket hack server, SMS ticket mobile hack clients and their encrypted communication protocol. The author describes various partial solutions how to fix this vulnerability including instructions for attackers how to evade them (e.g. by using decentralized private P2P mobile network). Finally, an effective countermeasure is proposed: secure SMS ticket generation methods based on symmetric/asymmetric cryptography and a security improvement of transport inspector’s checking process. Despite the fact that public transport companies have already been informed about this serious vulnerability, they ignore this fact and still use the vulnerable systems.</cite>

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Here is an abstract of the talk

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''The primary aim of this presentation is to show a serious inherentvulnerability in the public transport SMS tickets system widely used in many big cities. Firstly, prerequisites for a successful hack are described. Then a proposed SMS ticket hacking network architecture is outlined, including a SMS ticket hack server, SMS ticket mobile hack clients and their encrypted communication protocol. The author describes various partial solutions how to fix this vulnerability including instructions for attackers how to evade them (e.g. by using decentralized private P2P mobile network). Finally, an effective countermeasure is proposed: secure SMS ticket generation methods based on symmetric/asymmetric cryptography and a security improvement of transport inspector’s checking process. Despite the fact that public transport companies have already been informed about this serious vulnerability, they ignore this fact and still use the vulnerable systems.''

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=== More about the Speaker ===

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* [http://trip.sk/cv/cv-comprehensive.html Pavol's CV]

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[[User:Wilder|Pavol]] has offered a few dates where he could take his time to give his talk at the Metalab. If you are interested just mark one of the following dates to vote for your preference. After the last [[Metaday_20|Metaday]] Pavol expressed some preference for May the 7th (Tuesday before [[Metaday_21|Metaday 21]]) So if this date is possible for you as well, just vote for it. He will also give this talk at this years [http://2009.confidence.org.pl/lang-pref/en/ Confidence] Conference in Krakow on May 15th and wants to give it at the Metalab before that.

Abstract

The primary aim of this presentation is to show a serious inherent vulnerability in the public transport SMS tickets system widely used in many big cities. Firstly, prerequisites for a successful hack are described. Then a proposed SMS ticket hacking network architecture is outlined, including a SMS ticket hack server, SMS ticket mobile hack clients and their encrypted communication protocol. The author describes various partial solutions how to fix this vulnerability including instructions for attackers how to evade them (e.g. by using decentralized private P2P mobile network). Finally, an effective countermeasure is proposed: secure SMS ticket generation methods based on symmetric/asymmetric cryptography and a security improvement of transport inspector’s checking process. Despite the fact that public transport companies have already been informed about this serious vulnerability, they ignore this fact and still use the vulnerable systems.